1. Send husband and first-born child to the sand box.
2. Place second-born child in kitchen with large drawer of plastic containers.
3. Survey refrigerator and pantry. Not many choices today!
4. Decide on menu sure to please various age-groups: carrots, whole wheat pasta, special bruschetta pasta sauce mix from our trip to Tuscany, milk, water, and wine.
5. Fill a couple of pots with water, put on stove to boil.
6. Remember reading those "energy-saver" tips and search for lids for pots. Exchange lids with second-born to obtain proper lid.
7. Peel and slice half a bag of carrots.
8. Yell out the window to first-born child, " WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
9. Throw sippy cup of juice out the window to husband.
9a. Almost forget the rest of the carrots, but remember just in time to:
10. Put the carrots in one pot of boiling water.
11. Put the pasta in the other pot.
12. If 14 minutes is the cooking time for the pasta, decide that carrots also take 14 minutes! Set timer.
13. Put oil and water in only remaining frying pan. Add special Tuscan seasoning mix.
14. Wait for some of the water to evaporate.
15. I put in too much water.
16. It's going to be all watery now.
17. Respond to first-born,"WHAAT? IT'LL ONLY TAKE A FEW MORE MINUTES."
18. Find second-born. Place in kitchen. Provide with wooden spoon selection.
19. Second-born has a dirty diaper.
20. Turn heat up on the sauce.
21. It's taking forever to "boil down".
22. Feel bored and impatient.
23. Feel HUNGRY.
24. Decide the changing a diaper would eliminate one task while passing the time and get me one step closer to DINNER.
25. Change diaper. A big job, this time. YES, I washed my hands.
26. Timer is going off.
27. I almost forgot! The carrots and pasta!
28. What is that smell? This time, it's not the baby.
29. Replace second-born in the kitchen.
30. Race around turning off burners and draining pasta and carrots.
31. Don't want to look, but notice that the pasta sauce no longer is watery.
32. Every single molecule of water is in fact now gone.
33. Put the drained carrots back on the stove. Add a little butter and a little sugar. YUM!
34. Leave the pasta in a colander in the sink. Serving from the sink eliminates steps! One step eliminated. YES!
35. Look at pasta sauce.
36. Denial.
37. Find second-born. Rescue from top of toilet lid. Close all doors. Replace child in kitchen with musical guitar.
38. Decide to arrange a running date for the morning "real quick" before the boys come up for dinner.
39. Have to put phone back on hook before Beate answers due to sudden coughing fit.
40. Open windows.
41. Observe.
42. Pasta sauce is burned to a crisp. Ingredients are attached to the pan forever. New molecular combinations have been created. Pan declared dead. Don't need medical school for that one. Put it in the sink to soak, out of habit and a tiny bit of hope. Know there is no hope for this pan. Prepare to tell the relatives.
43. Respond to first-born, " SOOON!"
44. Baby has coughing fit.
45. What was in that sauce anyway?
46. Red pepper flakes.
47. I aerolized red pepper flakes.
48. Call first born and husband to dinner.
49. Serve carrots, pasta, and pesto from the fridge.
50. Husband has coughing fit.
51. Accuse husband of being dramatic.
52. Husband says witty something about how he can always tell when dinner is ready.
53. Ha. Ha. Ha.
54. Everybody to the table.
55. Second-born gets tied to her chair to prevent gravity-related injury.
56. Serve it up. Remember protein. Throw a slab of cheese and a knife on the table .
57. Food scarfed down in 15 minutes.
58. Look at kitchen. Look at surrounding area.
59. Remember the wine? I just did.
60. Bargain with husband: " Do you want kitchen duty or bed-time routine?"
61. He looks at kitchen.
62. He takes bed-time routine.
63. Request frying pan for upcoming birthday.
64. Pasta bruschetta a la borgo de' medici spezie bork! bork!bork!
Our decorated living room - awaiting the first guests!
Once everybody arrived, the boys were allowed to open their party favors. This took 15 seconds.
They are waiting for their cake, so I hurried up.
I lit the candles.
We sang to William, but he cried. He was mad because we had taken the cupcake he had gotten for himself away and asked if we could please sing to him first.
Then I helped him blow out the candles. It is hard to blow out candles and cry at the same time. (But hey, "it's his party, and he can cry if he wants to!") This time, he was crying because the smoke was in his eyes.
Hey, what about me? I'm fourteen months old today!
Once the present opening, singing, and cake-eating was done (45 seconds total), the boys played with the train track Sean set up for the occasion. We wanted to have an outdoor party, but it was raining - the train track provided a fun indoor activity.
The adults sat at the table and had cake and coffee while the children played. The boys played pretty well, considering their age and their excitement level! (David's water lily picture can be found to the left of the bookshelf. Thank you, David!)
